The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the team’s first preseason game on Friday night 31-25. But, as with any preseason game, the end result really doesn’t matter. Especially with a team like the Jaguars that won four games all of last year.
And when you’re drafting fifth overall, you have a lot of problems. First of all, start with a defense that was 31st in the NFL last season in yards per game. That won’t put smiles on many faces.
“I think we were playing a little loose [with] some of our coverage system,” head coach Liam Coen said after the game. “I was a little disappointed with the early third-and-two, I think it was, where we were playing a tight three deep in that situation. We got off coverage to give an easy Omaha (audible) away — that was a little frustrating to see.”
Jacksonville Jaguars are implementing a new defensive system
The Jaguars cleaned house this offseason. They added a new general manager in James Gladstone and a brand-new head coach in Coen. With that level of change one could expect that new systems will be implemented.
Anthony Campanile is the new defensive coordinator and it’s his first bite at this apple in the NFL. He previously spent the 2024 season as linebackers coach/running game coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Okay, seems like quite a jump, but we all have to start somewhere.
“Those are some things when you’re playing a new system, right? They were playing a lot of man coverage over the last year here,” Coen said talking about Campanile’s new system. “I’m playing a lot more zone coverage, so oftentimes you almost start to do too much the other way, where we’re giving up a lot of grass and a little bit of room, so I imagine we’re gonna want to ask these guys to get a little stickier.”
Coen was happy with the offensive line
With any young, losing team it’s easy to immediately wonder about the competence of the offensive line. Especially when you have a first-overall quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, and other first rounders like wide receivers Brian Thomas and Travis Hunter and running back Travis Etienne. If the o-line does its job, these guys should be great, right?
Well, that hasn’t been the case. The Jaguars’ offensive line was tied for seventh in the NFL last season with 32 sacks given up and that’s pretty solid. On Friday night, the line didn’t give up any sacks, but Coen wasn’t overly thrilled with the run blocking.
“I thought zero sacks is always nice to have,” Coen said. “I didn’t feel like the quarterbacks were under duress all that much until kind of the end there where you felt it. You know, I didn’t think we got great movement in the run game, but I thought that we tried to lean on them a little bit and had some good runs.”
“I’d like to be able to see us, you know, run it better than we did, but I was pleased with their overall effort. I thought [offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett] had great communication with those guys, and they did their best, but we can definitely be better there.”
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